


come out and haunt me

by whodoulove



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Loneliness, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 08:11:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21071708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whodoulove/pseuds/whodoulove
Summary: The end is past-nigh. The apocalypse has arrived with a bang. In this world where everyone else has turned to ghosts, it's just Taeyong and Jaehyun now.





	come out and haunt me

Taeyong's outside, smoking a cigarette. He knows that he doesn’t like Taeyong smoking – when Taeyong comes back into the room smelling like cancer, nicotine clinging to hair and clothes.

At one point in time, Taeyong would have stopped it for him. At one point.

This is different now.

If he had to choose someone to go through whatever apocalypse Taeyong's currently in, it wouldn’t be him. But he was the one that found Taeyong when the metaphorical bombs went off.

Taeyong looks behind himself, and see his waiting silhouette, dark against the curtain. And sigh.

☐

Taeyong sees his shoes first, Converse that look like they’ve been dragged behind a train for years. Then he squats down in front of Taeyong, brown eyes cool as he snaps his finger in front of his face.

“Hey.” Jung Jaehyun says, settling his hands on trembling knees. “Where’s Ten?”

Taeyong blinks past the hot rush of tears. “Gone?”

With uncharacteristic tenderness, he wipes tears away with the pad of a rough thumb, then the side of his pointer finger.

“I think it’s just us now.”

☐

Taeyong spent most of his second year peeking at him from behind textbooks, wondering if he thought about Taeyong like he used to, had his name in his lovely mouth at night, dreamt of Taeyong. But as he ignored the obvious elephant in the room, it faded. At some point, Taeyong would have given anything to be alone with him once more, just like they were before.

But not now.

“Stop smoking.” He says, arms crossed and unwavering as Taeyong opens the door. Taeyong looks at him, the only person he has now.

“Ok.” Taeyong amicably says, like he does every time, another lie to pacify him. And then he kisses his cheek, gently.

Today, he moves to kiss Taeyong on his lips. Taeyong can feel his eyelashes brush against soft cheekbones. His hand is heavy on the back of Taeyong's neck. And he does kiss him back, out of routine, out of normalcy, out of need for procedure. He doesn’t know if it’s out of love.

“I’m going to church.” Jaehyun says, in the drowsy space between their lips. Taeyong nods.

The church is old, worn near the supermarket. Today, Jaehyun kisses Taeyong goodbye and Taeyong feels like he could love him.

But he closes the apartment door behind him, and Taeyong lights another cigarette.

He comes back late. The church is fervent in her prayers. Taeyong wants his brother back, but doesn’t pray for him. He's already knelt at altars and looked under pews for long enough to know that all his words go soundless into the fading gold light.

They share one bed, even though they don’t need to. Taeyong doesn’t curl into his body; just sits on top of the covers as Jaehyun settles under them,as if waiting to tuck the younger man in.

Then -

“Can I hug you?.” Jaehyun says, palm upturned on the covers.

He looks at Taeyong and Taeyong looks at him.

It’s forever, as Taeyong slowly shuffles into bed beside him. Jaehyun's arm falls leaden around his shoulders and Taeyong's weighed down, pulled in, stuck to the hard lines of his body.

Taeyong does not have to.

☐

They are not gone. Cars move soundless down streets, grocery carts of food wheel themselves down the aisles; swing sets go up and down with joy.

They are in a world of ghosts. His church is old gold, worn and voiced by radio and Spotify. Taeyong's church is the quiet nook of the apartment, books and the silence that he once craved for now gorging on ears.

When Jaehyun kisses him, Taeyong imagines lips anointed with blood.

Somewhere, out there, his parents are out there, his brother and his friends. Somewhere, Ten. Maybe they passed him by, sightless of Taeyong and Taeyong of them. Somewhere, are Jaehyun's people, somewhere are those he loves more than Taeyong. Some day, when this ends, Taeyong will leave him, with only the feel of his lips on Taeyong's. Some day, it will only be the sensory memory of his rough hands and voice with him, on him, in him.

When this ends Taeyong will leave him.

Some day, Jaehyun will be the ghost.


End file.
